WWE RAW returns live tonight from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. The show is scheduled to feature the return of WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, along with his new bride Brie Bella.
Bryan and the return of “masked Kane” are expected to begin their feud heading into the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 4th.
Also on tonight’s show is the semifinals of the WWE Intercontinental Championship contender tournament. The second round matches on tonight’s show will feature Cesaro vs. Rob Van Dam and Sheamus vs. Bad News Barrett.
On their official website, WWE is focusing on the following five points for tonight’s show:
What havoc will Kane unleash on the returning Daniel Bryan?
Will The Shield confront the reunited Evolution group?
Who will advance in the WWE Intercontinental Championship contender tournament?
Will Tamina Snuka continue to dominate and what challenges face WWE Divas Champion Paige?
Will Bray Wyatt be able to gain a psychological advantage over John Cena?
Make sure to join us here at SEScoops.com tonight for live WWE RAW results coverage.
As previously reported, AJ Lee asked WWE for time off. As a result, the plans for the WWE Divas Championship match at the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, which originally featured Paige vs. AJ Lee, now appear to be Paige defending against Tamina Snuka.
Another match scheduled for the show is Big E. defending his WWE Intercontinental Championship against the winner of the ongoing contender tournament. The original plan was for Cesaro to win the tournament, and that may still be the case.
Other matches scheduled for the show include Evolution vs. The Shield, which was talked about as the official main event going into WrestleMania, Daniel Bryan vs. the masked Kane for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a steel cage match and Alexander Rusev in a squash match.
WWE Extreme Rules takes place on May 4th at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
– WWE Divas Champion Paige received some praise for her conduct on Bourbon Street during WrestleMania XXX weekend in New Orleans. While several NXT stars were out partying hard, Paige was seen keeping her distance and knew how to handle herself. Paige, who turned 21 last August, is one of the youngest performers on the WWE roster and was kept off the main roster until recently in part due to her age.
– As seen in this week’s RAW script that leaked online (view here), former Divas champion AJ Lee has been moved to the “Injured – TBD” section of the roster, internally. According to Bryan Alvarez of F4Wonline.com, AJ has requestded time off from WWE.
On Tuesday’s episode of WWE Main Event on the WWE Network, Tamina won a Battle Royal to earn a title shot against Divas champion Paige at the upcoming Extreme Rules special event. With that match set, here’s the updated card for WWE Extreme Rules 2014:
Steel Cage Match:
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
Divas Championship:
Paige (c) vs. Tamina
Intercontinental Championship: Big E (c) vs. Tournament Winner
– Since the untimely death of the Ultimate Warrior just one week ago, over a hundred companies began selling unauthorized merchandise donning Warrior’s name and logo. Attorneys for Ultimate Creations (Warrior’s marketing company) have sent out cease and desist letters to over 100 companies who started selling t-shirts with the Ultimate Warrior’s name and logo since he passed.
According to TMZ.com, Ultimate Creations is threatening legal action if the companies continue to profit off Warrior’s trademarks.
– Zeb Colter tweeted the following on Monday night, questioning whether WWE Divas Champion Paige is ‘legal’ –
Rock and roll band Rev Theory, who performed the song “Voices” live for Randy Orton’s entrance at WrestleMania XXX, posted the following photos from backstage at the show on their official Twitter account.
– Despite winning the WWE Divas Championship in her main roster television debut at WWE RAW on Monday, WWE Diva Paige will not be working the WWE live events this weekend. Instead, the new WWE Divas Champion will work her regularly scheduled NXT live events in Florida.
– The following is the latest edition of WWE Inbox, which features WWE Diva Tamina Snuka. The official description for the video reads as follows:
“Second-generation Diva Tamina Snuka hosts this week’s WWE Inbox to answer your questions about The Rock, her Hall of Fame father Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Santino Marella and much, much more! Don’t forget to send all of your questions to @WWEInbox.”
New WWE Divas Champion Paige spoke with The UK’s Independent this week about her WWE TV debut on Monday’s RAW where she defeated AJ Lee in an impromptu match to capture the WWE Divas championship. Here are some highlights of what she said about:
Her TV WWE Debut: “Oh my gosh, you have no idea. I lost my mind. Firstly just being in the ring with AJ who I’ve always looked up to, she’s an incredible talent and a woman to be around, and then being on Raw is just insane. I’ve been working my whole career to get to this point, it’s been nearly nine years now, and it was just incredible. I couldn’t stop crying, I haven’t stopped talking to my family about it, it’s overwhelming especially getting so much support from the fans and backstage. It’s been magical.”
Holding the WWE Divas Title & NXT Women’s Title: “The longer I can keep both Championships the better, I’m not just going to give up the NXT Women’s Championship, I worked my booty off to get that in the first place. I’m going to try and keep the WWE Divas Championship, I want to try and have a longer streak than AJ Lee’s. I’m going to be defending them both, and retain them constantly.”
This past week’s RAW could end up being a turning point in WWE history. Gone could be the days where the company relies upon the same tried-and-true superstars to draw money, instead turning to a new generation of up-and-comers. Indeed, this week’s episode felt more like a changing of the guard ceremony than a typical edition of the longest-running weekly episodic television program, as Michael Cole likes to affectionately refer to it as.
It was evident from the moment the program started, which was basically a coronation ceremony for Daniel Bryan. The place was simply electric, with nearly every fan in attendance participating in his signature “Yes!” chant.
What was interesting as the night progressed was that the WWE Universe turned on nearly every “old guard” superstar in favor of younger talent, whether heel or face. This was first seen during the Wyatt Family vs. John Cena, Sheamus, and Big E contest.
The WWE Universe has decided to follow the buzzards in recent weeks.
Cena was ripped a new one during his entrance and performance, as it seemed like not a single person in the crowd was cheering him. There is usually at least a vocal minority of supporters in even the most anti-Cena crowd, but the New Orleans crowd was completely against him, even singing, “John Cena sucks” to the tune of Cena’s theme song.
The Wyatt Family, on the other hand, were overwhelming crowd favorites even though they have been booked as nothing but heels since debuting. The crowd was singing Wyatt’s now-signature, “He’s got the whole world in his hands” while swaying back and forth. These guys are truly over and it was completely obvious which side the crowd was supporting during the Wyatt’s decimation of Team Cena.
A similar incident occurred later in the night during the Rey Mysterio/Bad News Barrett contest. Barrett has been booked as a heel in recent months, and unlike the Wyatt Family, he has not received any support from the fans. During his contest with Mysterio, however, Barrett had complete fan support and was even celebrating with the fans while Mysterio seemed a bit perplexed at times while he was mercilessly booed. It seemed obvious that the fans are in favor of change instead of the superstars of old.
The King of Swing is the newest Paul Heyman guy, much to the delight of the crowd.
You know things are a bit off when even Paul Heyman is cheered at one point in the broadcast. Cesaro announced his departure from the Real Americans and shocked everyone by claiming he is now a Paul Heyman guy, a move that set the place on fire. It set up an ironic situation where Heyman was practically booed out of building during his earlier promo with Lesnar but was later cheered after it was announced that he would now manage Cesaro.
The move highlights the popularity of Cesaro, as the crowd does not care who he is paired with as long as he is receiving a push, and the WWE does not usually pair Heyman with guys they are not planning to push. If you can get the crowd to cheer Paul Heyman, you must but doing something right, but after all, Cesaro is the guy who made a stable of immigrant-hating Tea Partiers popular with the crowd. In recent weeks, the crowd has even been chanting, “We the people.”
The following are highlights of a new Jim Ross blog:
On Paul Heyman’s promo on RAW: “Speaking of Paul Heyman, Paul had a magnificent night on Raw delivering a home run on the Lesnar beating Taker promo. Heyman is the best talker in the business and continues to do amazing work and has to be considered as one of the greatest managers of all time on a short list that includes Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette. Before all is said and done, Paul may be the best, pure manager to ever fulfill that role in the history of the business.”
On Paige’s main roster debut at RAW: “Paige has a significant upside and I can see her potentially having a Trish-Lita type rivalry with the talented AJ Lee who is still WWE’s most consistent, in ring diva. Both ladies have marketable, bell to bell skills and both can be aggressive in the ring which translates well to all audiences.”
On The Shield: “The Shield declaring their true colors as the show went off the air was significant. This gives WWE creative plenty of options going forward and the chance for Reigns, Ambrose and Rollins to take another step vertically not to mention when one or more of them ‘changes jerseys’ how big a deal that will be. I’d hope that metamorphous is not any time soon as the hotter The Shield becomes as fan favorites the more impactful they will be as antagonists when the time is right.”
The following news was revealed during tonight’s post-WrestleMania XXX edition of WWE RAW:
Big Show vs. Cesaro will take place on this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
The Wyatt Family will take on The Shield in a six-man tag-team match on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.
NXT stars Alexander Rusev and Paige debuted. Rusev defeated Zack Ryder with his “Accolade” submission finisher, while Paige defeated AJ Lee to become the new WWE Divas Champion.
Vignettes aired hyping the pending WWE main roster debuts of NXT stars Bo Dallas and Adam Rose. The Rose vignette featured the NXT star on an “Erotic Express” bus.
Rob Van Dam made his return to WWE. He returned in a match against Damien Sandow, which he ended up winning.
Cesaro was revealed as the newest “Paul Heyman guy.” Cesaro turned on Zeb Colter, aligning himself with Heyman and defeating his former “Real American” tag-team partner via count out.
WWE posted the following videos on their official YouTube channel for Women’s History Month with NXT Divas Paige, Eden, Devin Taylor, Raquel Diaz and Sara Amato.
– Approximately 400 fans were in attendance at the Gramercy Theater in New York City on Saturday night for the Jim Ross “Ringside” early show. WWE personalities Joey Styles and Tommy Dreamer were in attendance, and ESPN’s Robin Lundberg introduced JR on stage.
– Apparently WWE NXT Women’s Champion Paige has one of the best selling t-shirts on the official WWE website. WWE Diva Lana recently tweeted the following:
Two of NXT’s top stars are currently out of action dealing with injuries.
– NXT Women’s Champion Paige has been out of action for almost 2 months, but the nature of her injury is unclear. She did not wrestle at Thursday night’s NXT tapings from Full Sail University (airing 1/15-2/12), so the soonest we’d see her back on the NXT TV show is the special February 27th taping that will air live on the WWE Network.
– As previously reported, CM Punk was booed by some fans after his match against The Shield at the December 26th WWE live event from Chicago.
The boos came after Punk apologized to the Chicago fans for not being able to wrestle on the previous year’s holiday show from Chicago because he was out with a knee injury.
When some fans booed, Punk said he doesn’t care what they think about him and asked the crowd if they’d rather see John ‘Cena vs. Randy Orton’ instead of him.
– WWE.com has published an article looking at which NXT talents will be the next breakout stars, including NXT Women’s Champion Paige, Aiden English, Alexander Rusev, Enzo Amore, Sami Zayn, NXT Champion Bo Dallas, Emma and The Ascension.
– Here’s the latest WWE Backstage Fallout video from Friday’s SmackDown:
“Big E Langston and Nikki Bella comment on their nights at SmackDown.”
– The Divas currently working in the WWE developmental system are apparently being treated to a wealth of knowledge from Mickie James, who as previously reported has been working at the WWE Performance Center as a guest trainer this week.
WWE NXT Diva Paige posted a new tweet on her official Twitter account putting over the work James has been doing with the students throughout the week. Paige tweeted the following:
– WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley, along with current WWE Superstar Sheamus and current WWE Diva and Total Divas star Eva Marie recently appeared together as WWE representatives at a USO event in Washington, D.C. this past Wednesday evening. Below is a photo of the three together at the event:
WWE NXT revealed their first-ever Power Rankings this week, with NXT Women’s champion Paige grabbing the top spot in the inaugural list:
Paige
Corey Graves & Adrian Neville
Bo Dallas
Sami Zayn
Scott Dawson & Alexander Rusev
NXT explained the decision to decision to rank Paige at #1 on their official Facebook page:
“We can’t even remember the last time NXT Women’s Champion Paige lost a match in NXT! The moment the NXT Women’s Championship tournament was announced the NXT Divas division was all about Paige. Her dominance of the division puts her at #1 in the NXT Power Rankings. Will the recent betrayal by Sasha Banks, or #1 contender cause Paige’s first loss in months? For now The Diva of Tomorrow remains NXT Women’s Champion & number 1 on the list.”
NXT will post their weekly power rankings every Sunday on Facebook.
